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Thursday, March 16, 2017

I highly recommend Adam Isacson's article over at the Washington Office on Latin America about the renewed coca boom in Colombia. It is, as you might guess, complicated. The problem is that policy makers too easily view it as simple.

He covers it all, with some great visuals that I will be gratefully be using to discuss Colombian politics next week in class. Here is the crux:

Establishing a functional, low-impunity state presence in vast ungoverned territories is essential if Colombia is ever to lock in permanent reductions in coca cultivation, to halt the terrifying current wave of attacks on social leaders, and to prevent other illegal armed groups from assuming control of previously FARC-dominated areas. Governing abandoned areas is a complicated task, but it should be eased by the historic exit of a hostile insurgent group.

And this map, from the Colombian government itself, shows how big this challenge is.

We need patience, which even in the best of times is not a common trait for politicians. Secretary of State Tillerson has already signaled his disinterest in the peace plan, and so we can only hope that he is as irrelevant to policy-making as he seems to be.